The man accused of murdering 36-year-old Bobby Bernard Hopkins in May 2021 at a car wash in east Gainesville pleaded guilty on Thursday morning to a manslaughter charge. Eugene Javon Patrick, 24, accepted a plea deal at the Alachua County Stephan P. Mickle Criminal Courthouse after getting permission from the …
Read More »Orange Park and Keystone Heights voters adopt amendments and reelect incumbent
Tommie "Doug" Benefield, 37, a Certified Public Accountant, won reelection to Seat 1 on the Orange Park Town Council with 67.20% of the vote compared with his opponent, Kenneth Radwanski, who got 32.80% of votes. As of Tuesday night, the preliminary results showed there was an 8.96% voter turnout.
Read More »Protesters sang and prayed outside Florida State Prison as Donald Dillbeck was executed
Schoolchildren, teachers, anti-death penalty advocates and attorneys gathered across the street from the Florida State Prison in Raiford Thursday protesting the execution of David Dillbeck, a convicted murderer.
Read More »Ukraine’s heart in Florida: How loved ones bring people together thousands of miles away
Prosecutors drop criminal charges against prominent real estate agents; related civil lawsuits settled
The State Attorney’s office has dropped its criminal investigation of employees of a prominent commercial real estate firm whose offices were stormed by an armed SWAT team last year. Around the same time prosecutors abandoned their criminal case, on Nov. 1, at least three related civil lawsuits and countersuits in …
Read More »Here’s what Florida’s lawmakers didn’t do: notable failed bills in 2022
Gov. Ron DeSantis continued this week to sign into law some of the measures Florida’s Republican-led Legislature passed this session, but thousands of bills died in Tallahassee and never made it to the governor, including some on notable issues.
Read More »Florida considers keeping details of some child deaths secret
Florida’s Legislature is considering proposals to keep secret details about the deaths of children who die in domestic violence cases, in deference to the mother of two young boys murdered last summer by their father.
Read More »Prosecutors charge prominent real estate brokers with racketeering, stealing trade secrets
State prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged two prominent real estate brokers with felony criminal charges of racketeering, fraud and stealing trade secrets as part of a long-running investigation into a business dispute with their former employer. The men, Daniel James Drotos, 34, and Michael Steven Ryals, 65, were the same …
Read More »Company sues mother of murdered boys over husband’s $4 million life insurance payout; she says husband’s estate owes her $10 million
An insurance company is suing the mother of two boys killed by her estranged husband over a $4 million life insurance payout which claims she may not have been legally entitled to receive. Meanwhile, she is trying to collect $10 million from her husband’s estate.
Read More »UF in political firestorm over decision to block professors’ testimony in voting rights lawsuit
Trying to extinguish a political controversy that has enveloped the University of Florida, the school promised that it will review its conflict-of-interest policy after it blocked requests by three prominent professors to provide paid testimony in a voting rights lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top state officials. On …
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